CONTENTS
-----------------
Electric Scotland News
Scotland on TV
2007 Fall Colloquium at Uni of Guelph
The Flag in the Wind
The Scottish Nation
New Statistical Account of Scotland (1845)
The Misty Valley (A children's story)
Clan Newsletters
Poetry and Stories
Good Words - Edited by the Rev Norman MacLeod
Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland in 1876
Book of Scottish Story
Reminiscences of Old Scots Folk
History of the County of Bruce

ELECTRIC SCOTLAND
---------------------------------
Was told about a survey being conducted in the Scottish American community
in the USA so thought I'd pass on details about it....

On behalf of the Scottish American community, the Illinois Saint Andrew
Society has commissioned Campbell Rinker, a specialist independent Marketing
Research Company that serves the not-for-profit sector, to conduct a survey
in order to find out why people join, give to or attend events of
Scottish-American organizations. Campbell Rinker will present the results of
this survey at the Scottish North American Leadership Conference 26-28
October 2007.

This survey has about twenty questions and will take just a few minutes to
complete. You will be able to complete the survey through Sunday October 6
2007. Your responses will be completely confidential and presented only in
aggregate form. No one will contact you about your answers. Please encourage
your friends in the Scottish American community to take part in this
important survey. Your views will help our Scottish organization be more
relevant and responsive to the needs of our members and friends.

I might add that I went and completed it and noted it does ask for your zip
code. In other words it wouldn't take a postal code. When you do complete
the questionnaire they do also ask if you'd complete a few more questions.

I am intending to visit the Fall meeting at the University of Gueph...
providing I wake up in time as it's a good 2 hour drive to get there. I'm
told over 100 have already booked their place for the meeting so we might
even get to 200 on the day :-)

Was in Toronto this week Friday through to Tuesday and got a promotion to
Knight Commander (KCTJ) and we all enjoyed an after investiture banquet at
the Royal Canadian Military Institute. And talking about food I went out
with Harold Nelson and Yanus to an Armenian restuarant and then the next day
with Nola Crew and Frank Chen to a Chinese restuarant. Harold and I also
took in an Indian curry and so we travelled the world through the food we
ate :-)

I plan to start the 4 volume "History of Ulster, From the Earliest Times to
the Present Day" by Ramsay Colles published in 1919 next week.

ABOUT THE STORIES
-----------------
Some of the stories in here are just parts of a larger story so do check out
the site for the full versions. You can always find the link in our "What's
New" section at the link at the top of this newsletter and pick up poems and
stories sent into us during the week from Donna, Margo, Stan, John and
others.

So much for autumn being the season of 'mists and mellow fruitfulness' - at
the moment it feels like we've gone straight into winter. Still, perhaps we
should try warming ourselves up with a ‘wee dram'. The making of malt whisky
is something we've been following on Scotland on TV. There's a new episode
about to be added - all about distillation and you can find all the episodes
at
http://www.scotlandontv.tv/?channel=Food+and+Drinks

And talking of food and drink, we've pulled together all of our Scottish
Recipes (from home cooks, as well as chefs from some of the best restaurants
in Scotland). You can find them all on one page, where each video recipe has
a printable version alongside it. Click on this link here and you can see
for yourself
http://www.scotlandontv.tv/Scottish_Recipe.html

So, after all those calories, it's high time for serious exercise! Bring on
Scottish Backhold – an historic form of wrestling which originated here in
Scotland. The sport is said to be the fighting style which Rob Roy and the
MacGregor Clan would have used. We sent video reporter Nigel off to find out
more. Mind you, Scotland on TV boss Helen wasn't amused when she discovered
that not only did Nigel go along to film it, he took part in it too! (But
that's bosses for you!) You'll find the video in the Sport channel
http://www.scotlandontv.tv/?channel=Sports

What's that you said? How’s Nigel? Well he was walking rather gingerly
around the office the next day, but seems to have recovered now.

THE FLAG IN THE WIND
------------------------------------
This weeks Flag is compiled by Ian Goldie where he is mostly speaking about
other political

In Peter's cultural section he talks about books...

This month saw the 500th anniversary (15 September 1507) of the granting of
a patent by James IV, King of Scots, to Androw Myllar and Walter Chepman
authorising them to set up a printing press in Edinburgh – the first in
Scotland. The earliest known output from their press – ‘The Complaint of the
Black Knight – is dated 4 April 1508. The National Library of Scotland and
the Scottish Printing Archival Trust is jointly promoting the 500th
anniversary of this publication in 2008. Please visit
http://www.500yearsofprinting.org for details of the preparation of many
events which will be held throughout Scotland to celebrate this historic
publication.

The printed word has played a long history in Scotland with the
establishment of many leading publishers. Writers such as literary figures
from the past Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson down
to present day writers such as William McIllvaney and Ian Rankin have
provided us with a wealth of reading material. Book reading continues to
play a prominent part in Scottish life with Book Festivals proving to very
popular. The largest such festival is the August Edinburgh Book Festival but
the second largest takes place in the much smaller burgh of Wigtown. Now in
its 9th year the Wigtown Festival takes place in Scotland’s officially
recognised National Book Town from today Friday 28 September to Sunday 7
October 2007. Tonight the Opening Address will be given by Northern
Ireland’s First Minister Rev Ian Paisley in the Wigtown Festival Marquee.
The First Minister and a host of Irish writers will reflect this year’s
festival theme of peace in Northern Ireland. Visit
http://www.wigtown-booktown.co.uk for full details of this popular
festival.

Wigtown was chosen in 1997 as Scotland’s National Book Town from a leet
which included Dalmellington, Dunblane, Gatehouse-of-Fleet, Moffat,
Strathaven and the winning town, Wigtown, a royal burgh from at least 1292
now houses some thirty book related businesses with new and second-hand
books galore.

Wigtown was the county town of Wigtownshire which before local government
reorganisation formed the extreme south-west corner of Scotland with a
coastline of 120 miles. But this week’s recipe – Pot Roast of Lamb – looks
to the rural area of the county, which was most famous for dairy farming,
but like the all areas of Scotland had its share of sheep.

Method: Put half the flour into a plastic bag with the salt and pepper, and
add the lamb, shaking until each piece is well coated. Heat 1 tbsp of olive
oil until smoking, then add the lamb in small batches, making sure each
piece has been well browned. Remove the lamb, add more olive oil, then fry
the onions and garlic, add the rest of the flour, making sure it has
absorbed all the oil. Stir in the stock gradually, making sure the mixture
is smooth and free of lumps. Add the tomatoes and bring back to a simmer,
then add the lamb and haricot beans. Cook in a covered casserole at 150
degrees for two to three hours. Serve with new potatoes and peas

The Scottish Nation
----------------------------
My thanks to Lora for transcribing these volumes for us.

Finished the J's with Jolly and Jones and onto the K's with Kay, Keill and
Keith.

Here is how the account of Keith starts...

KEITH, a surname said to be derived from the German tribe of the Catti,
which, about the period of the downfall of the Roman empire, inhabited what
is now the electorate of Hesse Cassel, the sovereign of which, among other
old titles, was called princeps Cattorum. On being driven from their
country, a portion of them, in the first century, are traditionally stated
to have landed on the coast of Caithness, the most remote and northern
district on the mainland of Scotland, to which they gave their name. They
are also said to have given their name to the clan Chattan.

In all the accounts of the origin of the Keiths it is recorded that in 1010
Robert, the chief of the Catti, in a great victory which Malcolm II.
obtained over the Danes at Barrie in Forfarshire, slew, with his own hand,
Camus their leader, when the king, dipping his fingers in the blood of the
fallen general, drew three perpendicular strokes on the upper part of
Robert’s shield, whence his descendants bear three pallets, gules, on a
chief. Malcolm also created him heritable great marischal of Scotland, and
bestowed on him several lands in East Lothian, still called Keith, the
ancient name Catti, in process of time changed to Keithi and Keycht, being
at length softened into Keith. According to Sir Robert Sibbald, (Hist. of
Fife, p. 94, edit. 1803,) he also got the isle of Inchkeith in the Firth of
Forth, which likewise took its name from him. Their alleged descent from the
Catti appears to be only one of the fictions of the early chroniclers. The
name Keith seems to be the British Caeth, ‘confined or narrow,’ and is
supposed to allude to the strait channel hemmed in by the steep banks of
Keith water. It is certain that the descendant of Robert, in the reign of
David I., Herveus, son of Warin, possessed half of the district of Keith in
East Lothian, which was called from him Keith Hervei, and afterwards Keith
Marischal. He was a witness to charters of David I., particularly to that of
his grant of Annandale to Robert de Burs. His son, Herveus de Keith, king’s
marischal under Malcolm IV. and William I., witnessed several charters of
the latter, from 1189 to 1196. He had a son, Malcolm de Keith, witness to a
donation to the monastery of Kelso in 1185, who predeceased him, leaving two
sons, Philip and David.

Philip, the elder son, great marischal of Scotland, succeeded his
grandfather, and died before 1220. By his marriage with Eda, granddaughter
and heiress of Symon Fraser of Keith Hundeby, (now Humbie) proprietor of the
other half of the district of Keith, he acquired the whole barony of that
name.

His son, Herveus de Keith, and his uncle David, acted as joint marischals of
Scotland at the marriage of Alexander II. and the princess Joan of England,
at York, on 15th June 1220. He died soon after 1242. His son, Sir John de
Keith, great marischal of Scotland, died before 1270.

Towards the close of the 13th century persons of the name of Keith had
become very numerous in Scotland. One of them, Sir William Keith of Galston
in Ayrshire, in 1318, when the Scots surprised Berwick, and a number of the
garrison and inhabitants had made a sally from the castle, repulsed them
with great valour. In 1330 he was one of the knights who accompanied the
Douglas to Spain on his expedition to Palestine, with the heart of Robert
the Bruce. Three years later, he commanded in Berwick, and in 1335, was
ambassador to England; but the following year he was killed at the siege of
Stirling.

Sir John de Keith’s grandson, (the son of his eldest son,) Sir Robert de
Keith, great marischal of Scotland, was one of the most illustrious knights
of his day. In 1300 he was a prisoner in Cumberland, and in 1305 one of the
commissioners chosen by the Scots people for the settlement of the
government, as well as appointed a justiciary beyond the Forth. On 26th
October 1305, he was one of the guardians of Scotland. In 1308 he joined the
standard of Bruce, and distinguished himself at the battle of Inverury,
where Comyn of Badenoch was defeated, for which he got a grant of several
lands, and particularly a royal seat in Aberdeenshire, called Hall Forest.
In 1314, on the approach of the English army under Edward II., to Falkirk,
previous to the battle of Bannockburn, Sir Robert Keith and Sir James
Douglas were despatched by Bruce to reconnoitre them upon their march. In
the battle which followed he had the command of a strong body of cavalry. In
Scott’s ‘Lord of the Isles,’ after describing Bruce’s battle array and the
position of the right wing under Edward Bruce, he says,

“Behind them, screened by sheltering wood,
The gallant Keith lord marshal stood;
His men-at-arms bear mace and lance,
And plumes that wave, and helms that glance.”

To Sir Robert Keith was committed the important charge of attacking the
English archers, which he did so effectually, by making a circuit to the
right, and assailing them in flank, that he threw them into disorder,
creating a confusing from which the English army never recovered, and thus
contributing greatly to the signal victory which secured the throne to the
heroic Bruce. He was one of the magnates Scotiae, who signed the famous
letter to the Pope in 1320, asserting the independence of Scotland. He was
one of the commissioners to treat with the English, and a guarantee of the
truce concluded with them in 1323. He had from Robert the Bruce a charter of
the lands of Keith Marischal, of the office of great marischal of Scotland,
&c., to himself and his nearest heirs male, bearing the name and arms of
Keith, dated at Berwick-on-Tweed, 7th November 1324; and so high did he
stand in the confidence of that monarch, that, in April 1326, he was
nominated one of the commissioners to ratify an alliance with the French
king, Charles le Bel, at Corbeuil, but does not seem to have gone to France.
He witnessed charters of Robert the Bruce in 1328 and 1329, and was slain at
the fatal battle of Dupplin, 12th August 1332, when Edward Baliol surprised
the royal army under the earl of Mar, and put it to a complete rout. He had
a son, Sir John de Keith, who died before his father, leaving a son, Robert,
who succeeded his grandfather, and besides being great marischal, was also
sheriff of Aberdeen. He fell at the battle of Durham, 17th October 1346,
where Edward de Keith and Edmund de Keith, brothers, belonging to a
different family, were also slain.

New Statistical Account of Scotland (1845)
--------------------------------------------------------------
Have made a start at this huge publication which will likely be with us for
a few years. The first volume I am dealing with is the one on Aberdeen.
There are some 85 parishes in this volume and a write up on each.

Here is how the account of Peterhead starts in relation to its Civil
History...

Peterhead is mentioned in various acts of the Scottish Parliament. The
original charter of erection has been published. It is a very distinct deed,
and shows the commencement of the burgh of barony, and the vocations of the
original inhabitants.

Account of the Parish.—The late Dr William Laing, of the Episcopal chapel of
Peterhead, published, in 1793, "An Account of Peterhead, its mineral wells,
air, and neighborhood." The Statistical Account of Dr Moir was published in
1795. In 1815, the late James Arbuthnot, Junior, Esq. published "An
Historical Account of Peterhead, from the earliest period to the present
time, comprehending tin account of its trade, shipping, commerce, and
manufactures; mineral wells, baths, &c. with an Appendix containing a copy
of the charter of erection," &c. In 1819, Mr Peter Buchan published "Annals
of Peterhead," containing the same information as Mr Arbuthnot's account,
with such additional matter as he had been able to collect.

Historical Notices.—The Earls Marischall had their chief residence at
Inverugie Castle, on the opposite side of the Ugie, in the parish of St
Fergus; but a large portion of the parish of Peterhead was embraced in their
estates. It would be out of place here to enter into a historical account of
that ancient family, which will be found in the general history of Scotland.
The founder of Peterhead was also the founder of Marischall College,
Aberdeen. The last Earl forfeited his estates in 1715, in consequence of his
adherence to the family of Stuart. The Pretender landed at Peterhead in
December 1715. The inhabitants were attached to the Marischall family, and
in general embraced their views; and, in consequence, they on that occasion
espoused the claims of the house of Stuart.

There have been six Presbyterian ministers since the Revolution, viz. Mr
Guthrie, Mr Brown, Mr Farquhar, Mr Walker, Dr George Moir, and the present
incumbent, Mr Donald. Two of them, Mr Brown and Mr Farquhar, left Peterhead,
and were settled, the former at Belhelvie, and the other at Chapel of
Garioch.

Land-owners—The present heritors of the parish are, the Governors of the
Merchant Maiden Hospital of Edinburgh; Mrs Gordon of Boddam and Sandford;
George Skelton of Invernettie Lodge; George Arbuthnot of Invernettie;
William Arbuth-not of Dens and Downie-hills; Dr Cruickshank of Little
Cock-law; George Mudie of Meethill; Thomas Arbuthnot of part of Meethill;
James Sangster, part of Invernettie; Kenneth M'In-tosh, part of Invernettie;
Charles Brand, part of Invernettie; William Donaldson of Cowhills; William
Gamack, part of Invernettie; Robert Arbuthnot of Mount Pleasant and
Blackhouse; George Walker of Balmoor; Mrs Walker's Trustees, part of Balmoor;
Robert Walker, Senior, Grange; Robert Walker, Junior, Richmond; Alexander
Stuart, Coplandshill; the Heirs of James Hutchison of Richmond; the Trust-Disponees
of Mrs Hay Mudie of Meikle Cocklaw; the Trustees of the late Peter Hay of
Hayfield; James Shirras of Berryhill; Robert Mayor of Windy-hills; the Heirs
of James Reid of Ellishill; and Roderick Gray, part of Blackhill.

Antiquities.-—There are two old castles in the parish, Ravens-crag and
Boddam. Ravenscrag, in the barony of Torterston, is said to have belonged to
the family of Keith, who afterwards acquired the lands of Inverugie by
marriage. It is a fine ruin and specimen of an old baronial castle. The
walls are in some places eleven feet thick. It is supposed to have been
built in the eleventh or twelfth century. Boddam Castle was the residence of
a branch of the Marischall family: but it is not so ancient as Ravenscrag.
Within the last twenty years various antiquities have been discovered within
the parish of Peterhead and its immediate neighbourhood. On the estate of
Cairngall, in the adjoining parish of Longside, two oak coffins or chests
were discovered on removing a tumulus of moss. One of them was entire, the
other was not. They had been hollowed out of solid trees, and measured each
seven feet by two feet. The sides were parallel, and the ends were rounded,
and had two projecting knobs to facilitate their carriage. The bark of the
trees of which they had been formed remained on them, and was in the most
perfect state of preservation. No vestige of bones was found in either of
them. They had been covered over with slabs of wood, and lay east and west,
which indicated they had been used as coffins; but the absence of bones or
other human remains is difficult to be accounted for. In the parish of
Cruden, in a little hill, about four feet below its apex, a stone crypt or
sarcophagus was discovered, containing a considerable portion of two human
skeletons; the one that of an adult, the other of a young person, perhaps of
twelve or thirteen years of age; and also part of the skeleton of a dog; two
clay urns, (a larger and a lesser one,) rudely ornamented with bars or hoops
scratched around the outside of them; seven flint arrow points; two flint
knives, (one of them considerably worn); a polished stone about four and
one-fourth inches in length, neatly drilled through its four corners, and
slightly concave on the one side, and convex on the other. It is probable
the polished stone had been applied to the centre of the bow, to secure a
more accurate discharge of the arrow. A neck chain and battle-axe were dug
out of a tumulus near to the place in the parish of Cruden, where it is
supposed that Malcolm II. and Canute fought a severe battle, and where many
tumuli were formerly to be seen. The neck chain is formed of jet and amber.
The jet beads retain their original polish. The lower bead measures about
four inches, the others from two and a half inches to one inch. These beads
were separated from one another by little formless masses of amber, covered
with a brown crust; but otherwise the amber was unchanged, unless that it
may have been more brittle. The battle-axe is formed of black flint. It is
about seven inches long, and is less heavy than those generally found; most
of which are formed of granulated stones, and are larger and weightier than
the one above alluded to. The necklace had no doubt adorned the person of
some Scandinavian chief.

A pewter flagon, of no inelegant shape, and capable of holding nearly a
Scotch pint, was discovered in cutting a deep water course through a peat
bog. The metal was considerably oxidized. From the form of the flagon
antiquaries suppose it to have been in use about the time of James IV. or V.
of Scotland. A small shot of malleable iron was dug out near the base of
Ravenscrag Castle. It is one inch and three-quarters in diameter, and is the
second one found near the same place. It is supposed that it had been
discharged from a wall-piece, and that the wall-piece had been fired from
the Castle of Inverugie, on the opposite side of the river. These
antiquities are noticed here in consequence of having been investigated by
Mr Arbuthnot, and a record of them preserved in his musuem.

Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of Kent, Ontario.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kindly typed in for us by Nola Crewe

I DO not mean a doctor whose name was Sparrow, but a sparrow who was called
doctor, yea, doctor of divinity, and that by a very competent judge and
authority, even by Martinus Luther, to whom the Germans almost invariably
give the title of Teacher, and who, doubtless, may stand for a whole
faculty. When the great Wittenberg Reformer saw once a sparrow, (history
does not record whether it was in summer or on a snowy winter's day,) he
exclaimed: "Thou art my dear doctor of divinity, for thou teachest me God's
power, and goodness, and wisdom, and His wonderful providence." No doubt, he
thought of Christ's words: "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and
one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." And again:
"Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor
gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them."

I have read a very plain and forcible exposition of these words,
illustrating Luther's thought, that the sparrow is a dear doctor of
divinity. I read it in a devotional work, written by a Roman Catholic priest
in the south of Germany. Thou wilt not detect any Popery in it, but perhaps
the homelieness and quaint humour may appear strange to thee; it is their
way, and I am not sure but that, if kept within certain bounds, it is
permissible, and sometimes useful. The preacher says:—

Just look at the sparrow; you would think he was a very insignificant
creature, with his plain coat, and short leather pantaloons, He cannot sing
beautifully, has a small brain, and little sense or skill. Other birds go on
travel, and see strange countries, but he remains summer and winter in the
village. Other birds build beautiful nests, artful in their way, as the
greenfinch and the swallow, but he, instead of building for himself,
intrudes into other honest people's houses. And because he does not
understand anything, and is not able to sing, people think nothing of him
whatever, and don't feel their conscience burdened when they have killed
him. And yet I never heard that a sparrow died of melancholy, or committed
suicide, or was troubled with care and anxiety for the future. And he is
right, for though he is but a clown as compared to the swallow, and men sell
him for half a farthing, yet there is One who cares for him, and gives him,
day by day, what he needs. You think this a trifle, but let us just
calculate the expenses of a sparrow.

1. His aliment. He requires his breakfast and dinner every day, though it be
but a few grains of wheat, or an incautious beetle, or a sausage of a
caterpillar. And in winter, when the snow has been falling for days, and
everything is white, the little sparrow is hungry as usual, and. begins to
lift up his voice, unmusical as it is, and wants his daily bread. Where is
he to get it ? He cannot dig, and to beg he is ashamed, and for the little
that is to be gathered here and there, there is such lively competition; the
finch and goldhammer, and the greedy raven, are all stronger than he. Yet,
notwithstanding all these difficulties, the sparrow is not allowed to starve
a single day of the year; nay, he is so free from care, that he is quite
giddy and gay.

2. Clothing. The sparrow is just like other folk, he likes to be dressed
according to the newest fashion. And there is no child dressed better by his
mother than our friend. Warm in winter, and not too hot in summer. Has he
not a tail-coat with brown stripes? Does he not parade in short silken
trousers, like a courtier or one of the superior clergy? Has he not
beautiful half-boots of red morocco, and are they not brushed and shining,
though he has no valet? And did you never look at the velvet-cap on his
head? His dress does not lose its colour, though he does not trouble himself
with a parasol or umbrella. In spring and autumn he gets new clothes; in
spring he loses the thick winter feathers, and in autumn the light summer's
dress. He throws his old clothes away; he does not sell them to the Jew,
scorns such an idea, for he is as gay as a young comedian. Why, a coachman
or servant gets a livery but once in two years, but the sparrow twice in one
year, and has neither to drive nor serve. And how everything fits him! He
looks very differently from the shopkeeper, whose new coat has been spoilt
by the Parisian tailor in our village, or the soldier, who must wear a
uniform not made for him; his clothes fit as if he had been born in them;
and yet he is only a sparrow, and among friends and brothers worth only half
a farthing.

3. His education. Such a sparrow has, by nature, a weak and unsteady head,
and, as is the case with some students, no patience and perseverance. For
this reason, he is extremely ignorant. But he requires wisdom; for the cat,
the owl, the marten, the hens, the boys, are all after him, as if he was a
gipsy and vagabond.

Now, who teaches him to defend himself against these enemies, so superior to
him in talent? God himself is his teacher, and has given him his
instructions: when a man or boy approaches, even within ten feet, then fly
away; a cat you may allow to come a little nearer, but don't take your eye
from her; but a hen, who interferes with you when they strew corn, you need
not mind at all, only leap a little to one side.

And now, think not that I have been merely trying to amuse you, but my
intention is very serious. God, who has created heaven, and earth, and the
sea, has made all things full of beauty, in order that men and angels should
consider and admire it. For the whole visible world is a large Bible, full
of parables, allegories, and doctrines, and everything in it has its deep
significance.

The stars of heaven, the beautiful white cloud in the dark-blue sky, the
evening red, the storm, and the gentle breath of blossom-fragrance in the
morning, the summer sun like a sea of fire, and the still stars in clear
winter's night, the roll of the thunder, and the chirp of the cricket—in all
this' there is more than the eye sees and the ear hears. And the dark
mountain forest, and the sturdy oak, and the poplar near the mill-stream,
the hedge of thorns, the vine and the cornfield, the flowers of the field,
the modest violet and fragrant rose— these are not merely for man's use and
pleasure, but letters of a mysterious, wonderful work, written by God, and
they express Divine thoughts. And the roe with its gentle eyes, the
nightingale in the wood, the lizard and the hornbeetle, the blind-worm and
the tiny midges; all living things are not merely to eat, and drink, and.
grow, and die—they are living, walking, and flying writings of the Creator.
They were written before there were men to read them, in order that after
man's creation, he might immediately begin to learn and spell, as you have
seen a schoolmaster write on the black board before the children assembled,
so as not to lose any time, but to be able to begin his instructions at
once.

But men have lost by sin their understanding of this language, and think
that what exists is merely for food, and fuel, and clothing. Therefore God
sent His own Son into the world, even Him by whom all things were made; and
Jesus is our teacher, shewing us the way to spell, and read, and understand
God's writing.

Do not wonder that the Saviour uses such common illustrations. What the
Father thought worthy of creation, the Son thought worthy of exposition. So
be not too proud to learn from the sparrow, and believe that God is both
able and willing to care for the least of His creatures, and to help them in
all their troubles, and to provide for all their wants!

Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Am adding a variety of articles from this publication and this week have
included...

Manual of Agriculture. This is from the 1877 edition and is yet another huge
account. Here is how it starts...

Chapter I.—Introduction.

Agriculture, literally, tillage of the ground, is both a science and an art:
a science, in so far as its principles are co-extensive with those of
chemistry and the cognate physical sciences; an art, in the intelligent
direction of these principles to the practical end of best developing the
food-producing properties of the soil. The importance of founding the
practice of this art in this country upon a more thorough and widely
diffused knowledge of its scientific principles will be granted, when it is
stated on the best authority, that by a generally thorough cultivation of
the soil the annual agricultural products of Great Britain might be doubled
in quantity. And it is a fact, that we annually import food from other
countries to the value of L.80,000,000 sterling, which fact may,
undoubtedly, increase commerce and beget the comity of nations; but at the
same time it might leave us in a hazardous position in the event of a sudden
political emergency. Agriculture is the oldest of the arts; for we may rest
assured that Adam delved, however problematical may be the question whether
"Eve span." Amongst the ancient Egyptians, and later, under the Roman
Empire, its practice attained a high measure of success, but it rested on a
merely empirical basis. Not before the present century has any general
scientific knowledge of the laws of nature, which regulate the art,
characterised its numerous professors.

Whatever may be the varieties of soil and climate—and these, together with
the subsidiary circumstances of available human labour and of markets, may
be said to determine the particular mode of agriculture suitable for any
locality,—the great fundamental laws, in conformity with which alone is
truly successful practice possible, are comprised in the physical sciences
following:—viz., Chemistry, Botany, Geology, Animal Physiology, and
Meteorology. The last, to reverse the order, under the simple name of
"weather," is a subject of interest, scientific or otherwise, to every
farmer. It teaches a system of forecast of weather changes. Forewarning is
forearming; and by adjusting farm operations accordingly, great loss is
avoided. Animal Physiology treats of the bodily structure and the functions
of the bodily organs of our domesticated animals; and in that department of
it we earn the general treatment best fitted to ensure their healthy
procreation and profitable development. Geology has to do with the formation
and nature of the Earth's crust, the forces which have been at work in
preparing it for its present condition, and those at present affecting its
modification. In its relation to agriculture, it reveals to the farmer the
various compositions of soils, and their derivation, and it gives him
practical hints upon drainage operations. Botany, in its bearing upon
agriculture, teaches the systematic classification of the various plants
scattered over the face of the globe, their native localities, the variety
of soil and climate best suited to the cultivation and growth of individual
plants, and their internal structure, and modes of reproduction and growth.
Chemistry—the grammar, so to speak, of all the physical sciences—acquaints
us with the primary original materials of earth, air, and water, and
consequently of all animal and vegetable life. As being the most fundamental
of all the physical sciences bearing upon agriculture, its consideration in
that relation comes naturally first.

Book of Scottish Story
--------------------------------
Kindly sent in to us by John Henderson

The Book of Scottish Story
Historical, Humorous, Legendary, Imaginative
by Standard Scottish Writers Published by Thomas D. Morison, 1896

This week we have the stories of...

How I won the Laird's Daughter by Daniel Gorrie
Moss-Side by Professor Wilson

Here is how Moss-Side starts...

Gilbert Ainslie was a poor man; and he had been a poor man all the days of
his life, which were not few, for his thin hair was now waxing gray. He had
been born and bred on the small moorland farm which he now occupied; and he
hoped to die there, as his father and grandfather had done before him,
leaving a family just above the more bitter wants of this world. Labour,
hard and unremitting, had been his lot in life; but, although sometimes
severely tried, he had never repined; and through all the mist and gloom,
and even the storms that had assailed him, he had lived on from year to year
in that calm and resigned contentment which unconsciously cheers the
hearthstone of the blameless poor. With his own hands he had ploughed,
sowed, and reaped his often scanty harvest, assisted, as they grew up, by
three sons, who, even in boyhood, were happy to work along with their father
in the fields. Out of doors or in, Gilbert Ainslie was never idle. The
spade, the shears, the plough-shaft, the sickle, and the flail, all came
readily to hands that grasped them well; and not a morsel of food was eaten
under his roof, or a garment worn there, that was not honestly, severely,
nobly earned. Gilbert Ainslie was a slave, but it was for them he loved with
a sober and deep affection. The thraldom under which he lived God had
imposed, and it only served to give his character a shade of silent gravity,
but not austere; to make his smiles fewer, but more heartfelt; to calm his
soul at grace before and after meals, and to kindle it in morning and
evening prayer.

There is no need to tell the character of the wife of such a man. Meek and
thoughtful, yet gladsome and gay withal, her heaven was in her house; and
her gentler and weaker hands helped to bar the door against want. Of ten
children that had been born to them, they had lost three; and as they had
fed, clothed, and educated them respectably, so did they give them who died
a respectable funeral. The living did not grudge to give up, for a while,
some of their daily comforts for the sake of the dead ; and bought, with the
little sums which their industry had saved, decent mournings, worn on
Sabbath, and then carefully laid by. Of the seven that survived, two sons
and a daughter were farm-servants in the neighbourhood, while two daughters
and two sons remained at home, growing, or grown up, a small, happy,
hard-working household. Many cottages are there in Scotland like Moss-side,
and many such humble and virtuous cottagers as were now beneath its roof of
straw. The eye of the passing traveller may mark them, or mark them not, but
they stand peacefully in thousands over all the land; and most beautiful do
they make it, through all its wide valleys and narrow glens— its low holms,
encircled by the rocky walls of some bonny burn—its green mounts, elated
with their little crowning groves of plane-trees—its yellow corn-fields—its
bare pastoral hill-sides, and all its heathy moors, on whose black bosom lie
shining or concealed glades of excessive verdure, inhabited by flowers, and
visited only by the far-flying bees. Moss-side was not beautiful to a
careless or hasty eye; but, when looked on and surveyed, it seemed a
pleasant dwelling. Its roof, overgrown with grass and moss, was almost as
green as the ground out of which its weather-stained walls appeared to grow.
The moss behind it was separated from a little garden, by a narrow slip of
arable land, the dark colour of which showed that it had been won from the
wild by patient industry, and by patient industry retained. It required a
bright sunny day to make Moss-side fair, but then it was fair indeed; and
when the little brown moorland birds were singing their short songs among
the rushes and the heather, or a lark, perhaps lured thither by some green
barley-field for its undisturbed nest, rose ringing all over the enlivened
solitude, the little bleak farm smiled like the paradise of poverty, sad and
affecting in its lone and extreme simplicity. The boys and girls had made
some plots of flowers among the vegetables that the little garden supplied
for their homely meals; pinks and carnations, brought from walled gardens of
rich men farther down in the cultivated strath, grew here with somewhat
diminished lustre; a bright show of tulips had a strange beauty in the midst
of that moorland ; and the smell of roses mixed well with that of the
clover, the beautiful fair clover that loves the soil and the air of
Scotland, and gives the rich and balmy milk to the poor man's lips.

GREAT PRIDE OUGHT EVERY SCOT TO have in the village of his birth, and to the
auld-farrant, steep-braed village of Kilbarchan my mind and heart go back
whenever I think of the laird's loft.

The old parish kirk stands still at the bieldy back of the town, with the
graves of gentles and simples all about it. But it is stripped of all its
ancient glory, for a brand-new house of God has been built but a
stone's-throw from it; and as I look at the kirk of 1724, with its quaint
tower, its old ivy-covered outside stair, and its little-paned windows
winking in the sun, I am minded that this is the true successor of that cell
of St. Barchan, Bishop and Confessor, which Walter Fitz-Alan, High Steward
of Scotland, gave to the Abbey of Paisley in the days which are now hiding
ahint a whole gowpen of centuries.

In this old kirk, with its ancient pews and galleries, the thing that struck
the eye of childhood was the ken-speckle wooden shields, emblazoned with the
arms of the great families of the district. These shields were hung over the
front of the three galleries, where the local lairds had their seats. I can
see them yet, after all these years, in this and in many another old country
parish kirk in Scotland—the great wide, room-like gallery pew, with table
and chairs all set out in a row, and a little door at the back of the loft
where the Lord of the Lairdship could enter and leave with his family
whenever he liked. To that door at the back of the laird's loft the little
stone iron-railed outside stair led up, and close by the found of the stone
stair in the kirk-yard was the laird's own family vault, so that when he
climbed the stair to his own loft on a Sunday he was aye minded of man's
mortality, and of his own in particular.

For there were many namely lairds who sat in the lairds' lofts in the old
kirk of Kilbarchan: the Knoxes of Ranfurly, out of whose ancient family came
John Knox himself, the great Reformer of the Kirk, and Andrew Knox, who took
the other side, and became a Bishop of the Isles; the Dundonald family, with
the Hamiltons of Holmhead and Crawfords of Auchinames; Napiers of Milliken,
of the old stock of Napier of Merchiston, famed as landed gentry from the
time of Alexander the Third, and in later days for logarithmic inventions ;
Wallace of Elderslie; Houston of Johnstone; Cunninghame of Craigends—all the
seancient lords and lairds in olden times had their faith confirmed in
Kilbarchan kirk, and hung their escutcheons over the front of their lofts in
the old galleries. To the bairns of a past generation it whiles seemed
unfair that the high folks in the lofts should have these bonny painted
panels all to themselves, for a few of the old armorial shields still
remained. But the laird's loft, like everything old in this ancient land,
was but the grand consummation of what had taken centuries to grow out of a
very modest beginning.

"Amabel''—''Named after Lady Amabel, sister of Lord Bury and wife of Sir
Edmund W. Head—Lord Bury seems to have imposed his family names on the
peninsula"—"Nothing but Names."

Extract from the Report or County Valuators, 1879.

"Amabel.—There is a considerable amount of ordinary land on the south side
of this township, the north side is mostly rock, interspersed with lakes and
swamps; the east end is wet, sandy land; the west end sandy hills. It has a
considerable amount of village property. Its average price is $11.58."

Extract from the Report of County Valuators, 1901.

"This is the most southern township of what is now known as the Bruce Indian
Peninsula. While there are a number of very good farms in this township, the
large majority are the reverse. There is a great deal of rock from the 10th
concession north, and thousands of acres are almost valueless, indeed, as
you will observe by our figures, that a large number of lots are set down as
of no use whatever at present, and no prospective value. The northwestern
part is sand and considerable of it hilly; it is almost unproductive and has
a deserted appearance. A great many of the small habitations being
unoccupied, people have existed on these lots so long as the timber lasted,
after which they got up and left them. We see no bright future for this
section.

"There are a few hundred acres about two miles south-west of Wiarton as good
as any we have come across in the county. The soil of the southern half of
the township is fairly good, but a great deal of it is hilly, and roads are
hard to make on this account. Amabel is well watered, the Sauble River
enters at the south-east and merges with the waters of Lake Huron at the
north-west. There are a number of other small streams that give an abundant
supply for stock, etc.

"The rate per acre for this township is $13.26; of this sum the village
property amounts to $1.21 per acre."

Following the chapter on the Indian Peninsula it seems appropriate, in
taking up the history of each municipality in the county separately, to
commence with those situated in the Peninsula; which arrangement the author
will proceed to carry out, commencing with the most southerly of them, the
township of Amabel.

As stated in the preceding chapter, this township was surveyed in 1855, and
the lands therein offered for sale, September 2nd, 1856, by auction at Owen
Sound. Unfortunately for the development of the township, large tracts of
land were purchased at this sale by speculators, with the result that it was
a long time before the effects were overcome of the mistaken policy which
had permitted lands to be sold without conditions of actual settlement being
attached.

David Forsyth is credited with being the first settler in the town-ship, he
having squatted on some land near Elsinore before the Land Sale. The next
settler was James Allen, [James Allen came from the north of Ireland in
1832, when a boy six years of age, with his parents, who settled in
Peterboro' County. In 1850 he moved to the county of Grey and was reeve of
the township of Holland for a year or so. As stated above, he settled in
Amabel in April, 1857. He took an active part in municipal affairs, filling
the office of reeve of the united townships of Amabel and Albemarle for the
years 1867, 1868, 1869, and after the separation of the townships was reeve
of Amabel from 1870 to 1879, inclusive, and also for the years 1884, 1886,
and 1887. The fact that for sixteen years he filled the highest position in
the township tells its own tale as to the merits and popularity of Mr.
Allen. He died April 4th, 1895, aged 69.] who settled on lots 9 and 10,
concession A, in April, 1857. The village of Allenford which developed there
preserves the name of its founder. The settlement of the township along the
south and south-eastern parts was made as rapidly as could be expected when
remembering that large blocks of land were held by speculators.

The first to take up land in the vicinity of Colpoy's Bay was William Bull,
[Mr. Bull was a native of Essex, England, where he was born September 17th,
1823. He came to this country in early life and was married at Ottawa, in
1844, to Ann Barward. Moving to the county of Perth, he first tried his hand
at farming, giving it up to teach school at Mitchell, and later at Owen
Sound. In the spring of 1857 he settled near Colpoy's Bay, on the
twenty-fifth concession of Amabel, the pioneer settler of that part of the
township. Mr. Bull was the first clerk and treasurer of Amabel, filling the
first-named office for nineteen years, from 1861 to 1879, and the office of
treasurer from 1861 to 1867. The Government engaged Mr. Bull to make the
first revaluation of lands in the peninsula. In 1882 Mr. Bull received the
appointment of Indian Agent at Cape Croker, which office he held until the
time of his death, which occurred May 17th, 1884.] who settled in the spring
of 1857 north of Wiarton, on the boundary line betwixt Amabel and Albemarle.

In the fall of the same year he had as a neighbor Alexander Greig, who
settled on lot 14, concession 25. As he was one of the first to settle in
that part of the township, and as his experience was also that of many who
settled in that vicinity, the following narrative, based on a sketch written
by himself some years prior to his death, is here given: Alexander Greig was
born in Scotland in 1832 and came out to Canada with his bride in 1857. He
was present at the Land Sale held at Owen Sound in September, 1857, and
purchased the lands he subsequently occupied, both in Amabel and Albemarle.
Going back to Collingwood, where his household effects were, and securing
necessary supplies, he and his wife sailed from there by schooner for
Colpoy's Bay. Great was his surprise and disappointment to find, on his
arrival, that Wiarton existed only in name. Finding a deserted surveyor's
shanty, the women of his party were placed therein for shelter. The only
settler in the locality was William Bull, but as he was absent when Mr.
Greig and party arrived, the place seemed "a lone, vast wilderness."
Following the surveyor's blaze they were enabled to locate their lots. That
fall they assisted Mr. Bull in taking up his crop of potatoes, which service
Mr. Bull reciprocated by assisting them to cut a road through the bush to
their lots. Owing to his inexperience as a woodsman, it took four or five
weeks to construct their first shanty.

Some time in the month of October, Ludwick Spragge and his father came in a
boat from Owen Sound to Mr. Bull's to fetch his bride to Owen Sound to be
married. Mr. Greig took passage with them, with the purpose of securing a
stock of supplies for the winter. The return party consisted of Messrs.
Greig, Bull, Andrew Horn and William Patton. An overloaded boat and heavy
weather resulted in their being shipwrecked on the Keppel side of Colpoy's
Bay, and in losing nearly everything they had purchased. Not to be daunted,
and also forced by the necessities of the case, Messrs. Bull and Greig built
a boat and started in November on a second trip to Owen Sound. They again
met with very severe weather, which severely tested their frail craft and
their seamanship, and placed them in danger of a second shipwreck. However,
they returned to the bay in safety, and by Christmas were comfortably
settled for the winter. A big hemlock stood back of the shanty they had
erected; a severe storm which visited them about this time threatened to
fling to earth this monarch of the forest, and the household were filled
with dread lest it should fall on and crush their dwelling. As soon as the
weather calmed we started, said Mr. Greig, to "beaver" the hemlock. It was
the first big tree any of us had attempted to cut down, and so we worked all
around it just as a beaver would do, until it was about to fall. We were
beginning to congratulate ourselves as to the result of our labors, feeling
sure it would clear the shanty; but as fate would have it, as it fell it
struck a stout sapling, which diverted its fall so that it struck the roof
of our shanty, breaking it in but doing no damage to the walls. After this
accident the house could never be made comfortable, and we had to build
another one.

That winter we made a contract with Hugh and William McKenzie to chop five
acres. The result was a good object lesson in the work of a backwoodsman.
They took us along and showed us how to fell a tree, how to trim off and
pile the brush so as to make it fit for burning, besides other things every
skilled. woodsman should know. The trees then felled were, says Mr. Greig,
the first large trees I ever saw cut down with an axe. By the following
midsummer eleven acres were ready for logging, and in the fall of 1858 Mr.
Greig thrashed with a flail twenty-five bushels of wheat and ground the same
in a coffee mill. The first assessor, T. Roberts, made his rounds in May,
1859. Mr. Greig's assessment was $200 real, and personal property nil. In
1861 he took thirty bushels of wheat to Owen Sound by boat, but to his great
disappointment there was no market for it there. He could not sell it for
either cash or trade, and had to leave it at a mill to be ground into flour.

The County Council did something that year in opening up the county line,
and shortly after a market for grain was established at Owen Sound. About
this time a flour mill was erected by Ludwick Kribs at Colpoy's Bay.
Unfortunately it lacked a smut machine; as a consequence the flour there
ground was mixed with particles of smut, and the bread made from it looked
as if it were varnished with black lead. No ill results, however, followed
the eating of it. It was in the early sixties before Mr. Greig received cash
for any produce grown on his farm, an experience common to all in the early
settlement days. After the many hardships endured and overcome Mr. Greig
passed away, some forty-five years after he had settled on his bush farm.

The following are the names of those who are credited with having entered
the township in the first year of its settlement: James Allen, Thomas Knox
and John Griffin, in the vicinity of Allenford; David Forsyth, near Elsinore;
James Howe, William Burwash, William Carson, Isaiah Wilmont, John Murray,
Andrew and Angus Mcintosh and James Rushton, near Chesley Lake; William
Simpson and Henry Lewis, at Parkhead; and as neighbors of Alexander Greig,
on the north boundary, William Bull, F. Thompson, Andrew Home, William
Patton and James Henderson. The early settlers who came in shortly
afterwards were: William White, John and Ed. Loucks, Andrew Kidd, R.
Rutherford, Joseph M. Gunn, E. Webster, Thomas Ireland, John Aikens, Robert
Fraser, Thomas Cascaden, Edward E. Bolton, Thomas Innis, James Montgomery,
S. Nelson, S. Burrows, George Wain, [George Wain was drowned while crossing
the Saugeen River on the ice. He was collector of taxes; his roll went with
him into the river, and also the team and its load. Weeks after his body and
the roll were found. This sad event occurred April, 1864.] Donald McLeod,
James Mason, B. Evans, P. Arnott, William Evans, H. Kirkland, E. Blakely, D.
Berry, W. Driffel, P. Anderson, Peter Brown, Robert Davis, William Sharp
[First postmaster at Allenford.] and Thomas Askin.

The settlement of Amabel Township has been by no means rapid, as the
following census returns show: In 1861 the population was 182, in 1871 it
was 1,805, in 1881 the number was 3,046; this rose in 1891 to 3,890, but in
1901 a decrease is shown, the population being only 3,587. The paucity of
the population throughout the Indian Peninsula for some years after being
open for settlement is evidenced by the fact that at the general election of
1867 the only polling booth north of Arran on the Peninsula was at Parkhead.

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